Perception and Attention Flashcards
can be defined as the way information or any external stimulus is identified, organized and interpreted.
Perception
The ability to focus on specific information, maintaining the focus and being able to shift it at will to another is called
Attention.
Perception is the process of perceiving the sensory input and further interpreting it into
meaningful patterns.
Sensation + meaning=
Perception
Through the process of _________ we acquire sensory experience and through the process of perception we interpret and respond to such stimulations.
sensation
Perception consists of three components:
The perceiver, the target, the situation
She/he is a person who becomes aware about something in the environment and further comes to a final understanding. There are 3 factors that can influence his or her perceptions: Experience, motivational state and finally emotional state.
The Perceiver
: This is the person who is being perceived or judged. “Ambiguity or lack of in- formation about a target leads to a greater need for interpretation and addition.”
The Target
also greatly influences perceptions because different situations may call for additional information about the target. When a perceiver focuses on something he or she may start giving meaning to the events around them, for detailed understanding.
The Situation
: The world is full of stimuli that can attract attention through various senses. The environmental stimulus is everything in the environment that has the potential to be perceived.
The Environmental Stimulus
: The attended stimulus is the specific object in the environment on which attention is focused.
The Attended Stimulus
: This involves light actually passing through the cornea and pupil and onto the lens of the eye. The cornea helps focus the light as it enters the eye, and the and onto the lenstrols the size of the pupils in order to determine how much light to let in The cornea and lens act together to project an inverted image onto the retina.
The Image on the Retina
: The image on the retina is then transformed into electrical signals in a pro. cess known as transduction. This allows the visual messages to be transmitted to the brain to be interpreted.
Transduction
: The electrical signals then undergo neural processing. The path fol. lowed by a particular signal depends on what type of signal it is (i.e. an auditory signal or a visual signal).
Neural Processing
: In this step of the process, you perceive the stimulus object in the environment. It is at this point that you become consciously aware of the stimulus.
Perception
: Perception doesn’t just involve becoming consciously aware of the stimuli. It is also necessary for the brain to categorize and interpret what you are sensing. The ability to interpret and give meaning to the object is the next step.
Recognition
: The action phase of perception involves some type of motor activity that occurs in response to the perceived and recognized stimulus. This might involve a major action, like running toward a person in distress, or something as subtle as blinking your eyes in response to a puff of dust blowing through the air.
Action
According to ___________________, this apparent movement happens because our minds fill in missing information. This belief that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts led to the discovery of several different phenomena that occur during perception.
Gestalt psychology
Rapid sequences of perceptual events, such as rows of flashing lights, create the illusion of motion even when there is none. Motion pictures are based on this principle, with a series of still images appearing in rapid succession to form a seamless visual experience.
the phi phenomenon.
suggests that things similar things tend to appear grouped together. Grouping can occur in both visual and auditory stimuli.
Law of Similarity
German term meaning “good figure.” is sometimes referred to as the law of good figure or the law of simplicity. This law holds that objects in the en- vironment are seen in a way that makes them appear as simple as possible.
Law of Pragnanz
things that are near each other seem to be grouped together. In the above image, the circles on the left appear to be part of one grouping while those on the right appear to be part of another. Because the objects are close to each other, we group them together.
Law of Proximity
Points that are connected by straight or curving lines are seen in as by that follows the smoothest path. Rather than seeing separate lines and angles, lines are seen as belonging together.
Law of Continuity
Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity. Our brains often ignore contradictory information and fill in gaps in information. In the image above, you probably see the shapes of a circle and rectangle because your brain fills in the missing gaps in order to create a meaningful image.
Law of Closure
It refers to the errors in judgment made by the perceiver as a result of bias, easy access to data or ignorance of important information. It views perception as a function of physical properties of the object and characteristics of the perceiver as well.
Perceptual Set Theory
External Factors Affecting Perceptual Set Include:
Frequency, Stimulus Intensity, Stimulus Magnitude, Social Consequences, Context
: It refers to rate of occurrence of objects in a specific category. This will help us on focusing our attention to that specific object, which had occurred number of times. Repeated external stimulus gathers more attention than a single one, therefore stating the frequency principle. Repetition is one of the most regularly used techniques in advertising and is the most common way of attracting the people’s attention. results in making people aware of the stimulus.
Frequency
: If other stimulus is comparable, more intense stimulus attracts more attention than a subtle one. For example, a loud siren gets more attention than a faint one. Thus the sound plays an important role in perception of an object.
Stimulus Intensity
: It also plays an important role in attracting our attention. For example, a large advertising board attracts more attention than the small one. Therefore the size of the object affects our perception.
Stimulus Magnitude
: Categories commonly used by others seem more “ready”, e.g. inambiguous situations, this can be confirmed by such social phenomena as stereotyping, conformity, or diffusion of responsibility.
Social Consequences
Minturn and Bruner, 1951 illustrated how of alphabets and numbers plays a role in perception. For instance, exposing the subject to a vague number ‘9’ in the conten of letter and numbers will yield different responses. In case of numbers, it will carry significance, however, in case of letters, it will prove insignificant as one expects others letter to follow than a number.
Context
Internal Factors affecting the perceiver while perceiving the categories are:
Motivation, Emotion, Expectation, Culture
6 types of motivational determinants of perception such as:
Bodily needs (physiological needs).
Reward and punishment.
Emotional connotation.
Individual values.
Personality.
The value of objects.
influences the likelihood and nature of our perception about the objects and events around us.
motivation
in various investigation robust effects of emotion on perception are observed. The term ‘percep- tal defense’ is used to connote the same. It refers to delay in conscious recognition of unpleas ant emotions than neutral emotions. In an investigation, exposed the subjects to eleven neutral (broom”, “glass”, “apple”) and eleven taboo words (“rape”, “whore”, “penis”). The results revealed higher reaction time for taboo words in spite of greater exposure duration than neutral words. The results were a true example of perceptual defense which was operating to avoid evoking of unpleasant emotions.
Emotion
Prefers to the idea that what we perceive is to some extent, influenced by what we expect.
Expectation
Strong cross cultural differences are believed to interfere in perceptual processes. The background history and culture emerge as strong factors influencing the perceptual set. The connotation of any term changes in reference to the culture where it is being used. For instance, taboo word “Se would create less offence in America than a Muslim orthodox country.
Culture
refers to unique perceptual experiences in which information is received from the “real” external stimuli. This information further leads to an incorrect perception or a false impres sion, leading to stimulation from the objects or events. It is a constant error in visual perception. Therefore it is a wrong or false perception.
Illusion
Causes of Illusion
Similarity, Expectancy, Subjective factor
Identify if Hallucination or Illusion: is kind of a false or wrong perception
Illusion
Identify if Hallucination or Illusion: are caused by internal stimulations, no external stimulus is present.
Hallucinations
Identify if Hallucination or Illusion: is generally referred to as false perception.
Hallucination
Identify if Hallucination or Illusion: consist of an external stimulus
Illusion